Stopping winding of yarn having enlargements



Feb. 14, 1967 s. L. ABBOTT 3,304,016

STOPPING WINDING OF YARN HAVING ENLARGEMENTS' Filed May 13, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet l Feb. 34, 1967 s. L. ABBOTT 3,304,016

STOPPING WINDING OF YARN HAVING ENLARGEMENTS Filed May 13, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Feb. 14, 1967 s. L. ABBOTT 3,304,016

STOPPING WINDING OF YARN HAVING ENLARGEMENTS Filed May 13, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet '6 Feb. 14, 1967 s. L. ABBOTT 3,304,016

STOPPING WINDING OF YARN HAVING ENLARGEMENTS Filed May 15, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IFIG.5

United States Patent 3,304,016 STOPPING WINDING 0F YARN HAVING ENLARGEMENTS Samuel L. Abbott, Wilton, N.H., assignor to Abbott Machine Co., Inc., Wilton, N.H., a corporation of New Hampshire Filed May 13, 1965, Ser. No. 455,391 3 Claims. (Cl. 242-36) This application is a continuation-in-part of my application Serial No. 374,061, filed June 10, 1964, now abandoned.

In one aspect this invention is particularly concerned with stopping winding of double spun yarn, the double spun yarn being one instance of occurrence of an enlargement in yarn.

In the spinning of yarn, particularly in the worsted industry, so called double spinning is difiicult to prevent. Double spinning occurs when a broken end becomes blown onto an adjoining spinning yarn. The broken end combines with this adjoining spinning yarn and this results in spinning yarn of double weight. This double spinning yarn will usually eventually break down, the spinning frame not being designed to spin in this manner, and the occurrence of double spinning goes undetected, the operator not being aware of the cause of the break. The double spinning yarn will often not break down until two or three hundred yards have been produced. When woven into the cloth as a warp such a length of double spun yarn will spoil several pieces.

Slub catchers such as used in conventional practice do not detect the double spun yarn because there is so little difference in diameter (theoretically, 1.41 to 1 for the double spun yarn as compared to the correctly spun singles yarn) and because the double spun yarn is stronger at least in places (theoretically, twice as strong).

One object of the invention is to provide for simply and reliably preventing the continued winding of double spun yarn.

Another object is to accomplish this through the use of little more apparatus than is preferably provided for conventional slub catching duty and breakage detecting duty and which may continue with these duties.

A further object is to prevent the continued winding of double spun yarn without seriously detracting from the advantage of slub catchers which allow short unobjectionable enlargements to pass without being caught.

In another aspect the invention is particularly concerned with increasing the effectivenes of a slub catcher of the kind that distinguishes between slubs and unobjectionable enlargements which are shorter than the slub which it is desired to remove, for example, slub catchers of the type described in United States Patent No. 2,623,265. Slub catchers with so-called wide blades (relatively long in the direction of yarn travel) can apply a greater frictional drag to the yarn in the case of a slub than in the case of a short unobjectionable enlargement. However, in order to cause breakage in the case of strong yarns comprised of synthetic fibers or mixtures of synthetic and natural fibers it has been necessary to apply a very strong frictional drag. The frictional drag can be increased by setting the blades of the slub catcher closer, or by increasing the basic running tension of the yarn, but each of these expedients has practical limits. Narrowing the gap between the blades too much will tend to cause the slub catcher to strip the fibers from the yarn and also catch some of the short unobjectionable enlargements, and increasing the basic running tension too much will introduce threading difficulties. The present invention in one aspect aims to insure rupture of the yarn and stopping of winding in the case of a slub even though only a moderately high tension is created in the yarn at the slub-catcher when the slub is encountered. This object is attained consistently with rupturing the Yarn and stopping winding when double-spun yarn is encountered and also consistently with distinguishing between slubs and short unobjectionable enlargements.

Other objects and advantageous features will be apparent from the explanation of two examples of the invention in this specification and its accompanying drawmgs.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a left side elevation partly in section of the head portion of a traveling spindle winding unit having one form of the invention applied thereto, some parts being omitted for simplicity of illustration, and showing the yarn in normal running condition.

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing the yarn as having taken a slightly different course on its way to the winding package after having passed the slub catcher, this resulting from the occurrence of double spun yarn.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the head showing both the range of traverse of the normal winding yarn and also showing a double spun yarn caught and broken.

FIG. 4 is a left side elevation with some parts omitted, and similar to FIG. 1, showing a further embodiment of the invention.

FIG. '5 is a front view of the winding unit head of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view partly in plan and partly in horizontal section taken on the line 66 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 77 of FIG. 5.

The winding unit head shown in the 'drawings is that of an Abbott traveling spindle winder having many of the features shown in United States Patent No. 2,135,485, but as is more recently the practice, reversed as to the direction of travel, so that whereas in FIG. 19 of said patent the unit is traveling to the right, in FIG. 3 of this application the travel is to the left. Some parts are reversed, left for right, corresponding to the reversal in direction of travel.

The head 10, with other similar heads, is conveyed around the upper rail 11 on which its supporting rolls 12 ride. A non-traveling tractor or drive roll 15, along which the units travel, frictionally rotates the winding package P and the traverse cam (not shown) which reciprocates the thread guide 18 (shown in two opposite extreme positions in FIG. 3). The traveling unit is approaching the observer in FIGS. 1 and 2.

For lifting the package off the drive roll upon breakage of the yarn, parts corresponding to those of said Patent No. 2,135,485 are shown and these are designated by the reference characters applied thereto in that patent.

A wire feeler 310 is pivoted in brackets 31?. one of which is shown in FIG. 1. Feeler wire 310 has an upper horizontal portion that presses up against the running yarn Y which is approaching the thread guide 18, or stated differently, the feeler wire is held down by the tension in the running yarn. The lower part of the feeler wire,

indicated at 312a, terminates in an eye to which is connected one end of a link 314, the other end of this link holding the lower end of a dog 362.

Dog 362 is pivoted for a swinging movement, clockwise from its position of FIG. 1, upon an enlargement or head 360 on the left end of a horizontal shaft 303. The right end of sh-aft303 carries a crank 302 to which is pivoted the bottom end of the lifter rod 301 which serves to raise the package-holding arm and thereby remove the package from the drive roll to stop the drive of the package as in said Patent No. 2,135,485.

Normally these package-lifting parts are inactive but when the yarn breaks or exhausts the feeler wire swings, its upper end rising, and the link 314 permits the dog flected at the wire 3 as seen in FIG. 1.

362 to swing clockwise. When th-us swung the dog will strike the next one of a series of stationary pins 318 which extend from the rail 11 andthe travel of the unit past this pin will rotate the shaft 303 to operate the lifter rod 301 and. raise the package.

The feeler wire 310 may be described as biased toward a position for initiating stopping of the package drive. The upper part of wire 310- need only rise a short distance above its position of FIG. 1 to bring about such stopping.

Many otherconventional forms of means for stopping the drive of the package upon yarn breakage or exhaustion could be used in conjunction with the present invention but this one of said Patent No. 2,135,485 is illustrated because its feeler wire 310 is conveniently employed in a new way in the form of the invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 3.

Reference may be had to United States Patent No. 2,623,265 for the arrangement of the yarn tensioning and slub catching devices. I

The yarn Y runs upwardly past guides 21 and 22, above the lower .of which guides are tension discs 30 and 3 1, disc 3-1 being suitably loaded to press the yarn against disc 30.

Above the tension discs and below the upper guide is the wide blade sliding block slub catcher of Patent No. 2,623,265 which consists essentially of two steel blocks 40 and 41, block 40 being fixed and block 4 1 being slidable forwardly, in FIG. 3 and to the right in FIG. 1. The yarn passage is formed by grinding away block 41, so that between the forward portions of the two blocks a vertical slot of the appropriate restricted Width is provided. Block 41 is interchangeable with similar blocks to provide the width of slot desired. As commercially manufactured the blocks stand one inch high, so the slot is one inch long in the direction of the yarn which runs vertically therethrough.

The tension discs, slub catcher. and the guides that precede and follow these are supported from a suitable front or cover plate 24 which also carries the previously mentioned brackets 312 for the pivotal mounting for the feele-r wire 310.

Now as to the prevention of winding of double sp-un yarn, the slub catcher cannot be relied up'onto break the double yarn as it-does'in the case of a slub because, as

indicated above, the double spun yarn is not sufficiently larger in diameterthan the normal yarn, and also may be about twice-as strong.

Even though the double spun yarn does not break, the

slub catcher. must necessarily offer more resistance to the double spun yarn than to normal yarn. For instance if the slot issubstantially the same in width as the normal diameter of the yarn, very-littleresistance will be applied by the slub catcher to the normal yarn. With the yarn increased in diameter to about 1.41 times the normal,

more resistance is applied. The increase in resistance is reflected in anincrease in tension in the run of yarn between the slub catcher and the winding package. The

invention makes use of this increase in tension to stop the winding. T

While various forms of means can be used to detect 'the rise in tension, it is convenient to use the feeler wire 310 which is already present in machines of the type disclosed in Patent No. 2,135,485 and used for its function of detecting breakage or exhaustion.

The yarn Y running from the upper guide 2-2 to the winding package P is in the form of a bow-string, de- For 'detecting increase in tension the resiliency of the wire is made use of by providing-an adjustable stop screw 50 'a'gainst which the lower end of the wire 310 will bear. This will then normally hold the horizontal upper part of wire 310 a little away from the head of the unit as seen in FIG. 1. Upon the increase in tension that occurs when double spun yarn is pulled through the slub catcher, the resiliency 4 of the wire 310' will permitits upper part to depress into contact with the head as seen in FIG. 2.

A simple snagging blade 51 having an upturned left end 52, forming a mouth, is provided on the cover plate, with its upturned end or'mouth positioned to catch a yarn carried into it by the reciprocation of the'threa'd guide 18 from left to right. As seen in FIG. 1 the normally running yarn clears this snagging blade and as seen in FIG. 2 the more highly tensioned double spun yarn which has depressed the wire 3-10 will beintercepted by the snagging blade. FIG. 3 shows a yarn as having been caught by the blade and broken off just beyond it. This, of course, interrupts the winding. While other forms-of means for interrupting the winding could be employed, the snagging blade is prefered because of its simplicity and the speed with which the interruption .is brought about.

To adjust the device the screw 50 is turned .in a v-direction to allow the yarn to depress the upper part of wire 310, and with normal yarn running this turning of the screw is continued untilthe notmal yarn is. caught by the snagging blade. The screwis then given one turn in the opposite direction, whereupon normal yarn will clear the blade about as seen in FIG. 1.

After the double spun yarn is snagged and broken, the wire 310 and associated package-lifting parts are free to perform their functions as in Patent No. 2,135,485 of lifting the package off the drive roll so that its drive is stopped. It'will'be noted that the snagging blade is located ahead of the detector wire 310 so that the yarn breakage caused by the snagging action will be detected by the wire 310.

The normal functioning of the slub catcher is not interfered with and it can have a conventional setting or width of slot appropriate to the yarn.

As will appear from Patent No. 2,623,265 an advantage of the wide blade type of slub catcher lies in its ability to pass short enlargements such as nibs or short slubs without breaking the yarn. It might be wondered whether this ability might be lost if an increase in tension resulted in snagging of the yarn. It is believed that such is not the case to any significant extent. Should the tension created by a short enlargement passing through the slub catcher be suflicient to depressthe feeler .wire, the period of depressiontshoul'd correspond approximately to the time ofpassage of theshort enlargement through the slub catcher,-i-.e., correspond approximately to a one inch travel. .The thread guide willhave :a slower linear speed thanthe forward speed of the yarn,.for instance about 0.4.times the yarn speed, so that there' will be a zone of thread guide travel of only about 0.4 inch in whichthe thread guidecan lead the yarn into .the mouth of the snagging blade during a'corresponding onev inch forward travel .ofthe ;yarn.' With'a six inch traverse, when the thread guidetravelstwelve inches in a com- ..plete ,back and forth cycle, this 0.4 inch zone would representonly-one-thirtieth-.of the entire thread guidetravel cycle. .Thus the chances of a short enlargement occurring-at just-theright timeto cause snaggingare very slight. I

On the other hand, double spun yarn generally persists throughout a considerablelength, that 'being the, reason why it is so objectionable, so that there-is. ampletime for the thread guide to lead the double. spun yarn into the mouth of thes'nagging blade no matter what is the instantaneous position ofthe thread guide when the feeler wire becomes depressed. No harm is done if several feet of the double spun yarn are wound onto the'package,

because this can be wound off again and discarded by be held down against an upper inclined portion of the cover plate 24 by the tension of the running yarn Y. Rise of the feeler wire, when the yarn breaks or exhausts, will cause the yarn package to be lifted from the drive roll, to stop winding as in the device of FIGS. 1 to 3.

The slub catcher of FIGS. 4 to 7, like that of FIGS. 1 to 3 employs the general construction of Patent No. 2,623,265 but is shown as constructed similarly to FIGS. 4 to 9 of my application Ser. No. 296,693, filed July 22, 1963, now abandoned, in that its right hand side element includes six independently movable fingers 52a backed by resilient rubber 51a and a metal plate 50a. The rubber may be placed in the desired degree of compression by adjusting a threaded sleeve 60 which bears against plate 50a, or alternatively, the adjustable weighting arrangement of Serial No. 296,693 may be employed to apply pressure to the plate 50a. The left side element 41 of the slub catcher may be the same as that of Serial No. 296,693 and Patent No. 2,623,265.

Above the slub catcher there is mounted a block 63 having a flat right face against which presses the flat left face of a slidable round plug 64 as best seen in FIGS. 5 and 6. The rim of plug 64 is beveled and the yarn normally runs on this beveled surface partly around the plug 64 which thus deflects the yarn on its way from the slub catcher to the feeler wire.

Due to the bevel, the tension of the yarn tends to displace the plug 64 to the right in FIGS. 5 and 6. The plug responds to an increase in yarn tension by a slight displacement which permits the tensioned yarn to shorten its path, i.e., become less deflected and drop in between the flat end face of the plug and the opposed flat face of block 63.

In its normal running position of FIG. 4 the yarn Y runs a little above, but clear of, a snagging comb 70, comprising closely disposed sharpened pins 71, mounted on the cover plate. When the increased tension has displaced the plug the yarn is caught by the pins of the comb and ruptured. The less deflected course of the yarn, assumed upon response of the plug to increased tension, is indicated at Y in FIG. 4. The yarn deflecting plug 64 is yieldingly urged towards the block 63 by any suitable means, for example, a crank 80, which is pivotally mounted at the axis 81 and carries an adjustable weight 82. Preferably a body of rubber 84 (FIG. 5) is contained within the end of the plug 64 against which the crank 80 bears, in order to absorb vibration from other parts of the machine.

It will be seen that When the yarn has been released from the beveled surface of the plug, and becomes less deflected, this beveled surface is not effective to restore the yarn to the more deflected position. Therefore, if a slub of for example 0.75 inch length encountered by the slub catcher, causes the tension to rise, and causes the plug to allow the yarn to assume its less deflected course, the yarn will not be restored to its more deflected course upon the slub leaving the slub catcher, but will be caught and snagged.

The device of FIGS. 4 to 7, like that of FIGS. 1 to 3, is effective to rupture the yarn and stop winding in the case of double spun yarn. As in the case of the device of FIGS. 1 to 3, the slub catcher acts frictionally to increase the yarn tension when double spun yarn is encountered, This, then causes the yarn to engage the snagging comb, and becomes ruptured, whereupon the feeler wire will rise and cause the winding to stop.

In both forms of the device, the principle of the Wideblade slub catcher is employed to distinguish between short, unobjectionable enlargements and longer enlargements which it is desired to remove. Either such enlargement will cause an increase in the tension, but with the present invention there does not need to be a suflicient difference betweent the increased tensions in the cases of long and short enlargements to cause the higher tension to break a strong yarn in the case of the longer enlargement. Only sufficient difference in tension to displace the plug 64 and release the yarn in the case of a slub, and not to displace the plug in the case of a short unobjectionable enlargement, is required. This means that, for a given yarn, a more open setting of the slub catcher can be employed, causing less tendency to strip fibers from the normal yarn.

I claim:

1. In a yarn winding machine including yarn traversing means and a slub catcher,

means responsive to tension in the yarn which has passed the slub catcher, said tension responsive means deflecting the course of normally tensioned yarn between the slub catcher and the traversing means and responding to increase in tension by allowing the course of the yarn to be less deflected, and

a snagging device positioned to catch traversing yarn arriving thereat when in such less deflected course but clearing the more deflected normally tensioned traversing yarn,

the snagging device having a mouth adapted to receive laterally moving traversing yarn,

whereby a brief increase in tension caused by passage of a short enlargement through the slub catcher will usually not cause the yarn to be caught by the snagging device.

2. A yarn winding machine including a slub catcher, a yarn failure detector and traversing means which the yarn encounters in that order, the detector being biased toward a position for initiating stopping of drive of a winding package,

characterized by a snagging device in the region of the traversing yarn,

the snagging device having a mouth adapted to receive laterally moving traversing yarn,

the detector normally holding the traversing yarn away from the snagging device but being yieldable under excesssive yarn tension to permit the traversing yarn to be caught by the snagging device.

3. A yarn winding machine according to claim 2 in which the snagging device is ahead of the detector so that upon yarn being caught by the snagging device the detector can detect the resulting breakage.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,135,485 11/1938 Abbott 24235.5 2,623,265 12/ 1952 Abbott 2864 3,034,278 5/1962 Kay et a1 24219 X 3,096,945 7/ 1963 Wildi 24219 3,189,288 6/ 1965 Petersen 24237 STANLEY QILREATH, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A YARN WINDING MACHINE INCLUDING YARN TRAVERSING MEANS AND A SLUB CATCHER, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO TENSION IN THE YARN WHICH HAS PASSED THE SLUB CATCHER, SAID TENSION RESPONSIVE MEANS DEFLECTING THE COURSE OF NORMALLY TENSIONED YARN BETWEEN THE SLUB CATCHER AND THE TRAVERSING MEANS AND RESPONDING TO INCREASE IN TENSION BY ALLOWING THE COURSE OF THE YARN TO BE LESS DEFLECTED, AND A SNAGGING DEVICE POSITIONED TO CATCH TRAVERSING YARN ARRIVING THEREAT WHEN IN SUCH LESS DEFLECTED COURSE BUT CLEARING THE MORE DEFLECTED NORMALLY TENSIONED TRAVERSING YARN, THE SNAGGING DEVICE HAVING A MOUTH ADAPTED TO RECEIVE LATERALLY MOVING TRAVERSING YARN, 